Outrage After News Channel Helps Public Identify Gun Owners

News station WRAL has caused outrage amongst gun rights activists by listing address details of firearms owners in Raleigh, North Carolina – prompting critics to complain they are being treated like sex offenders and left open to criminal predation.

In an article about firearms training, a WRAL.com article homes in on the fact that rural areas have a much higher per capita rate of concealed carry permit holders.

The story also mentions efforts to increase regulation on concealed carry permit holders and quotes Gail Neely, executive director of North Carolinians Against Gun Violence, who claims that “concealed weapons permit holders aren’t as law-abiding as they are reputed to be.”

However, the part that really has second amendment proponents up in arms is a searchable box that allows the public to identify where concealed carry permit holders live, by typing in the street name, city, county and zip code.

Although concealed carry permit holders cannot be identified down their precise address, in many rural areas there are just a handful of houses on one street, and sometimes just one or two, leaving gun owners open to criminal predation.

As concerned resident David Knight told us via email, “Although street numbers are not shown (yet), as they point out most of the carry permits are in rural areas. On my road for example, there are only 4 home sites. On many rural roads there are only 1 or 2 houses. This information has previously only been available by written request from the State Bureau of Investigation.”